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Benjamin Cocanougher
- Alumni
- United States
- 2016 PhD Zoology
- St Catharine's College
I grew up catching praying mantises and damselflies in rural Kentucky. As an undergraduate at Centre College, I majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I spent my summers taking care of sick children at the Center for Courageous Kids and doing research in organic chemistry and neuroscience. I matriculated directly to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed my first three years of medical school. I then moved to Janelia Research Campus as a HHMI Medical Research Fellow; there I studied the neural and genetic bases of behavior. As a PhD student in Zoology, I will study adaptive behavior. All animals integrate information about past experience into future decisions; this is the basis of learning and memory. I am proposing to write a specific memory and read the memory trace in the brain. I will use the fruit fly as a model organism. By understanding mechanisms of memory storage, we can begin to investigate changes in memory formation in disease; this may allow us to develop rational therapies for disorders of memory formation, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease. After completing my PhD, I will return to finish my last year of medical school and pursue a career as a child neurologist and neuroscientist, using my lab to better understand the patients I see in clinic.
Previous Education
Centre College
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Latest News
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Humans in harmony
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Out from the margins
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Beyond the earthquake
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Two scholars share Bill Gates Sr. Award
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars have won the fifth annual Bill Gates Sr. Award for in recognition of their outstanding research and social leadership. The two Scholars – Fabrice Langronet and Victoria Herrmann – have been awarded the Bill Gates Sr. Award for 2017. The Award was established by the Gates Cambridge Trustees in June 2012 […]
From Tasmanian Devils to bone regrowth
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Day of research 2017
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Vaccinating against antibiotic resistance
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Collaborating for gender equality in STEM
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Promoting enterprise in Belo Horizonte
A Gates Cambridge Scholar and his supervisor have teamed up with a Brazilian NGO to win a prestigious grant to help low-income entrepreneurs living in the slums of Belo Horizonte. Paulo Savaget [2015] and his supervisor Professor Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, have won a highly competitive Newton Fund grant from the […]
